Local Goa News

Friday, April 29, 2016

Two engineering students held for possessing ganja

PANAJI: The Anti Narcotic Cell (ANC) of the Goa police arrested two students of the Goa Engineering College (GEC) Farmagudi-Ponda on charges of possessing drugs (ganja).
Based on specific information, the Crime Branch police and the ANC conducted a joint raid at a boys hostel in the Goa Engineering College campus in the wee hours of Saturday between 12.05 am and 3.30 am.
Arrested students have been identified as Vishant Gawas and Arun Singh Rathod. Twenty-one year old Gawas is in the final year while Rathod (18) is a first year student, police said.
According to police, 303 grams, suspected to be of ganja was found in possession of Gawas, a resident of Thane, Sattari, while 18 grams was found in possession of Rathore, a resident of Zuarinagar, Mormugao. The ganja is said to be worth Rs 32,000.
Police said that during the raid, the two students were found in possession of ganja (suspected) following which they were placed under arrest. Both the accused have been remanded to one day police custody.
Police inspector Dattaguru Sawant and police sub-inspector (PSI) Laxi Amonkar of Crime Branch whereas PSI Dinesh Gadekar and Therron D’Costa of the ANC were part of the joint raiding team. The raid was conducted under the supervision of SP Karthik Kashyap.
“The raid is to send a strong message that Goa police will not tolerate any such nefarious activity in the state of Goa, more particularly in educational institutions,” said a senior police officer.
According to information, police has identified some more students from GEC who are reportedly involved in such nefarious activities. “These people are on the radar of the police,” said a police officer.
Incidentally, a couple of years back, the ANC and other government agencies had conducted raids in kiosks in the periphery of the GEC as well as other education institutes in Ponda. However, no narcotic substances were found. The raids were conducted following reports and complaints from parents.